"Generally speaking Apple is magnificent, but Apple has killed the music stores, as has the internet," he said.

When asked whether it is Apple's fault, Branson added: "No, you just have to accept that technology moves on and nothing is forever."

The Virgin Group boss said that it was "very, very sad" to lose Virgin Megastores, which once dominated towns and cities across the world.

"We had the stores for 30 years but nothing is forever sadly and I'm just glad that we sold the stores ten years ago so we didn't have to go through the horrible pain of people losing jobs," he explained.

Virgin Megastores is still present in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE but the name has disappeared from the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain, US, Canada, Australia and Japan.